“These negotiations are challenging, as you’d expect on an issue as complicated as guns, but all of the senators involved are approaching this in good faith.” – Senator Chuck Schumer in Congress Set to Consider Tighter Rules on Firearms [via nytimes.com]

This may not be popular here, but I support universal background checks. They will allow for transfers to family members and those with ccw without a check. The details of how someone like me can sell to you without either one of us having an FFL is what I’m waiting to see. Do we have to go through an FFL(and pay something) or can we have access to NICS? If we do have access to NICS, how can we guarantee that this won’t be abused for non firearm purchases? The other linchpin is how long these records are maintained, if maintained at all. I do not support a registry but I don’t see how this will truly work without one. For those of you saying this violates the Brady bill, if you pass a new law you can change an existing one so that is a moot. I do not consider passing a background check to be an infringement on my rights as I have already done so and will continue to do so in the future.

ok, so it’s cool when they ban certain firearms within the next decade, and SWAT shows up at your door to pick them up? i’m cool with that, i guess. as long as they bring donuts. and give my kids those nifty police baseball cards.

That is why I said I do NOT support a registry. And if SWAT officers start kicking in doors of people trying to confiscate ‘illegal’ firearms based on a future ban, then this country is lost and laws won’t matter anymore.

Andrew, with the state of highly automated, globally accessible, meta-linked computerized data centers such as the NSA’s in Utah, there is no way to say you support government taking records but not keeping them.

They will be kept somewhere. There will be a backup. A backup of a backup. A restore of a backup of a copy of a restore.

In the digital data center age, there is no such thing as data that is not retained.

Get that through your head, please. Then please rethink what you are saying. For you to say, “well, if my idea doesn’t work, then everything has gone too far to care about,” is exactly the kind of thinking we have to resist.

If the stated use of a universal background check system is to prevent criminal access, and criminals won’t use it or need to use it, what is the system’s purpose? Defacto registry for future confiscation. If the government has info, they will abuse it. Look at what goes on with DMV records, and what ATF has done. Now imagine what they haven’t been caught at. No matter the intentions of the authors of these laws, government eventually abuses the system. It is what bureaucracies do. As an aside, I don’t trust the intentions of our senators. The whole arrangement is getting to close to nobility and serfs for my liking.
I understand that you want a way to sell to a stranger and ensure they are legally able to purchase a weapon, but there are so many ways to circumvent the process that you personally won’t ever see the criminal. You will see a straw purchaser if this is enacted. What if they hold you responsible for selling to a straw purchaser? In reality this system is designed to make private sales very onerous. You will create a record. You will pay a fee. You may open yourself to unforeseeable legal liability. It will be illegal to sell to a trusted friend without using it.

This is the way it is in California already, has been for years. Some FFLS set up at gunshows to do nothing but ptp transfers–at $75-$90 per. Same thing for internet sales–by the time you tack on transfer fee, any savings are pretty much out the door. IN fact, I was looking at a gun on Bud’s that wsa a good price, but after adding in the transfer fees, the cost of the gun was $20 higher than the local ffl had listed the same gun when he had it in stock.

I support universal background checks on kitchen knives, chainsaws, gasoline…. why not if we are going to do background checks on one setof TOOLS? Let us not forget what guns truly are… tools, nothing more… why do we need any background checks at all? Do they do anything other than increase the price of a gun by giving us a false sense of security?

You are so right! The loathsome Chucky Schumer personifies what we are talking about. This sniveling weasel is exactly the type of politician the Founding Fathers dreaded. Lying, conniving and weaving his webs, he has managed to lead the “urban mob” into happy peonage by convincing them that he cares for their welfare. His only principle being a furtherance of collectivism led by the new “Illuminati”

The underlying LIES of these “negotiations” & the aspect that makes my blood boil even more is in that little phrase ” Senate aides say”. In our “modern” political system, MUCH if not MOST of negotiating is done by AIDES; non-elected gophers w/an agenda all their own. It’s why we get 2000+ page bills that no one has read or has to read “after they sign it”. There is an illusion here that these treasonous Congressmen are all encamped in a room hammering out their collusion, when in fact, they are sitting in their easy chairs sipping their adult beverage of choice while plotting the next Trillion $$$ they want to borrow from China to pay for it. And, ANY & ALL that collude w/Schumer & Feinstein are guilty of treason against the Constitution. Yeah, that would be YOU, John McCain & the rest of these “elected Representatives”.

ACtually, most of these elected representatives are out running around raising money for their next election cycle. That’s why so many miss so many votes. It’s ridiculous when these guys spend much if not most of their time running for reelection and not doing the job they were elected to do.

The Roman emperor Gaius (Caligula=Bootsie in latin) wasn’t all that crazy. Remember, the history books were largely written by men of the senatorial class–the folks to whom he was showing his contempt.

Living near the mass media of NY has allowed me to suffer thru YEARS of Mr. Shumer’s lies, arrogance and pompousness. DELETED I have absolutely no idea how he gets re-elected, and how he went from being a bad congressman to being an even worse senator. The crap that comes out of his mouth on a daily basis, is astounding in showcasing his complete disconnect with society. I hate the guy intensely, but I can’t vote against him as I live in PA, and yet his crap has a direct influence on me. The best I can do is contribute money to his opponent each election cycle. Trust me, I’ll be throwing a LARGE party the day he looses an election, or falls down a flight of stairs or gets hit by a meteorite, or speeding bus.